For Its Special Issue Of January 2017, National Geographic Marks History By Addressing The Gender Revolution

The year 2017 has just begun and what better than a historical first to start this new year! Indeed, the magazine National Geographic has just released its special issue for January 2017 with the title "gender revolution" proposing two covers: the version with Avery Jackson, a 9-year-old trans girl; or with a group of people representing the notion of gender identity and non-binarity.

The magazine, which is used to talk about nature and humanity through reports and photos from around the world, has decided this time to mark the minds by addressing the notion of gender, and understand by that gender as we know it, with all its diversity.

So on the cover of this edition, you will be able to appreciate transgender, intersex or bi-gender people, or Avery Jackson that you will surely recognize since we had already spoken of this 9-year-old trans girl a few months ago after she managed to raise the money needed to build a trans house, both right next to the equality house and especially just in front of the anti-LGBT Baptist Church of Westboro in Kansas City (see our article: A Trans House Opens In Topeka, Kansas Thanks To An Eight-Year-Old Girl)

About the January edition of National Geographic, 15 transgender, genderfluid, intersexe, … people have been interviewed and show their gender identity with a look at the multitude of ways in which gender has repercussions on societies and the clichés of virility and femininity.

"The portraits of all the childrenare beautiful. We especially loved the portrait of Avery—strong and proud. We thought that, in a glance, she summed up the concept of "Gender Revolution," explains National Geographic's editors in a statement.

"Like her, all of us carry labels applied by others. The complimentary ones—“generous,” “funny,” “smart”—are worn with pride. The harsh ones can be lifelong burdens, indictments we try desperately to outrun.

"The most enduring label, and arguably the most influential, is the first one most of us got: “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” Though Sigmund Freud used the word “anatomy” in his famous axiom, in essence he meant that gender is destiny.

"[...] In a story from our issue, Robin Marantz Henig writes that we are surrounded by “evolving notions about what it means to be a woman or a man and the meanings of transgender, cisgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, agender, or any of the more than 50 terms Facebook offers users for their profiles. At the same time, scientists are uncovering new complexities in the biological understanding of sex. Many of us learned in high school biology that sex chromosomes determine a baby’s sex, full stop: XX means it’s a girl; XY means it’s a boy. But on occasion, XX and XY don’t tell the whole story."

In addition to this feature, a two-hour documentary by Katie Couric, simply titled "Gender Revolution, A Journey with Katie Couric", will air on February 6 on the National Geographic Channel.